Mental disorders pose a major and growing challenge for health care systems worldwide, marked by persistent treatment gaps and limited access to psychotherapeutic care. Mind-body interventions such as mindfulness and relaxation practices are widely used in clinical contexts as low-threshold strategies to support stress regulation and psychological well-being. Despite their broad application,...
EXCLI journal2026Chun-Hua Xu, Bi-Lan Zhang, Chun-Lan Guan et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) demonstrates significant efficacy in improving depressive symptoms and modulating metabolic profiles. However, the specific metabolite biomarkers and metabolic pathways underlying MBCT's therapeutic effects in adolescent depression remain unclear. This study aims to identify potential metabolite biomarkers and metabolic regulation pathways associated...
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on depression, anxiety, stress, and hopelessness among parents of children with autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD]). A pre-test-post-test, parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted in two institutions providing education for children with ASD in Konya, Türkiye. The sample included...
Depression is a common complication after stroke. Although prior studies suggest that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) may alleviate depressive symptoms in post-stroke patients, the evidence remains inconclusive. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effects of MBSR on depressive symptoms after stroke. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase,...
Depression constitutes a major global public health burden, with university students exhibiting a disproportionately high prevalence of depressive symptoms. Although Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has demonstrated efficacy in alleviating depressive symptomatology, its underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This randomized controlled trial investigated...
Extensive research documents that mindfulness meditation (MM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have benefits for emotional, social, and mental health outcomes. Despite this work documenting the benefits of meditation practice, research also demonstrates that meditation does not always have equivalent effects for all people. So, who is most likely to benefit from meditation practice? In this...
Ruminations are persistent, repetitive, and often distressing thoughts centered on negative events, mood states, and psychiatric symptoms. Recognized as a maladaptive cognitive process, ruminating contributes to the onset and persistence of psychiatric disorders and is strongly linked to negative emotional states, self-criticism, and suicidality. Despite its clinical significance, a...
Depression is a highly prevalent mental disorder worldwide, and its cognitive rigidity-characterized by persistent negative beliefs resistant to countervailing evidence-remains a critical puzzle in philosophical psychiatry and clinical psychology. Existing theories of abductive reasoning have struggled to explain why similar adversities lead to rigid negative cognition in some individuals but...
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) affects about one-third of people with major depression and leads to higher suicide rates, impaired functioning, and increased healthcare use. Originally defined as nonresponse to tricyclic antidepressants, TRD now encompasses inadequate response to multiple antidepressant classes, psychotherapy, and neuromodulation. Inconsistent criteria-varying by agency,...
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 10-20% of women after childbirth, with incidence reaching 30-50% in high-risk populations. Acute postoperative pain and sleep disturbance represent modifiable risk factors. This study evaluated whether a multimodal analgesic protocol combining dexmedetomidine and esketamine is associated with reduced PPD incidence in high-risk parturients undergoing cesarean...
Surgical stress can lead to postoperative anxiety and depression, especially in adolescents. These complications reduce quality of life and increase medical burdens, but perioperative psychological interventions for adolescents are limited, and related mechanisms remain unclear. Esketamine (S-ketamine), an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, has analgesic, sedative,...
Esketamine is increasingly being applied for preventing postpartum depression (PPD). However, clinical protocols for this application are inconsistent, particularly concerning the route of administration. The aim was to determine whether esketamine bolus administration differed from continuous infusion in terms of preventing PPD. A total of 503 subjects without prenatal depression undergoing...
Depressive disorders remain a major source of disability worldwide, and many patients do not achieve sustained remission despite the availability of multiple antidepressant options. Unmet needs are particularly evident in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and bipolar depression, where delayed onset of action, incomplete response, relapse, residual functional impairment, and tolerability...
Some individuals interpret persistent depression and anxiety, alongside the exhaustion of standard treatment options, as leading to a desperate need for relief. While desperation may shape how people assess treatment options, its role in psychedelic self-treatment and its relevance for emerging clinical models of psychedelic treatment remain underexplored. We collected discussion threads from...
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) modulates stress responsivity and social-affective behaviors, but its role in mood and trauma-related disorders remains poorly defined due to challenges in peripheral measurement. This study used copeptin, a stable, reliable, and well-validated surrogate marker of AVP secretion, to assess vasopressinergic function in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals...
Rapid-acting antidepressants show that mood can lift within hours when glutamatergic circuits shift from an "NMDA-dominant" to an "AMPA-dominant" state. Intravenous ketamine achieves this flip but is hampered by dissociation and logistics, while dextromethorphan + bupropion (Auvelity®) primarily supplies the initial NMDA blockade and yields slower, less durable benefit. We hypothesize that a...
Ketamine has emerged as a highly effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Though it acts as a non-competitive antagonist of excitatory N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR), widely expressed in the brain, including on inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic cells, the mechanisms of its antidepressant action are less clear. To investigate the links between glutamate...
Ketamine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonist, shows promise for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), with psychedelic doses potentially enhancing efficacy. However, its transient antidepressant effects and the need for repeated infusions raise concerns about optimal duration and long-term safety. Two clinical trials have tested the combination of ketamine with psychotherapy for depression,...
Esketamine is an innovative treatment for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, its adoption could depend on the perceptions and motivations of prescribing psychiatrists, among other factors. This study aims to explore the attitudes of psychiatrists (of all levels, including those in training) across Saudi Arabia toward the use of esketamine for TRD and investigate the...
To investigate the effects of single low-dose esketamine combined with patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) on early postpartum depression symptoms and recovery quality in women undergoing cesarean section. This prospective, randomized, controlled study enrolled 136 women scheduled for elective cesarean section, who were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to the study group (esketamine...